JEFF
LAMPE

Scattershooting

Mass exodus ahead at DNR

Mon, May 21, 2012

Ray Marshalla has seven days left as Illinois waterfowl biologist.

After that, he will officially be retired. And so will many other Department of Natural Resources employees.

While numbers are not exact yet, rumors are rampant. Some say the DNR accepted 80 resignations in one day last week.

Among that group are as many as 25 site superintendents, 10 wildlife staffers (out of 36) and many others.

The reason for the mass retirement is a pending bill that would impact sick days and vacation for long-time employees who did not retire prior to June 1.

For Marshalla, that was too much to lose. “I didn’t want to retire. It was the hardest decision in my life,” Marshalla said. “I felt like I was going to throw up for three days but I realized I had to make my decision pretty quick.”

Site supers leaving include Ed Oest at Anderson Lake and Bill Douglass at Rice Lake, among many others.

“It’s going to be a mass exodus. State government is going to be in a tough situation,” Marshalla said. “So far there’s no talk of any moeny to replace all these people.”

MORE TO COME

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They make snake baits for a reason

Fri, May 11, 2012

There’s a reason for those snake-imitating bass lures on the market. Just ask Austin Downey and his sister Caitlin of Pekin.

During a May 5 fishing trip to a private club near Victoria, Austin hooked into a largemouth bass. After a few pictures, Caitlin picked up the fish, only to immediately drop the bass, saying “There’s something coming out of its mouth!” Now Caitlin, 15, is accustomed to handling fish. She was the first female member of Pekin’s high school bass team. But this was very unusual.

Sure enough, a small 8-inch water snake had worked its way out of the bass’s gut and wiggled to freedom.

“We have seen lots of things in fish’s craws. Fish, crawdads and stuff, but this is the first time we have ever had a live snake reemeerge from one,” said Randall Downey, Austin’s father.

Actually, the snake was on its way out while Randall was taking the first picture of Austin, 10, above. You can just see the snake head below the blue chatterbait in the picture at the very top of this entry.

“I had a very happy boy who caught a very hungry bass and we ended up with a very lucky snake, who got eaten by a bass which was caught by a boy who ultimately released the snake for the most part unharmed,” Randall writes. “The bass wasn’t so lucky as the boy decided it would be his dinner!”

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Central Illinois crappie biting

Wed, May 09, 2012

Yes, there was a cold front that passed through central Illinois.

Yes, I was wearing a warm coat today while fishing. No, the fish have not stopped biting.

At least not in the Fulton County strip mine we fished Wednesday morning. Despite fears that fishing would be poor, our group of three – myself, Chef Todd and host Roger Woodcock – managed to hook up with about 50 slab crappie (about a dozen of which we let go), plenty of bass (no lunkers, despite Chef Todd’s claim he could catch a 5-pounder in a mud puddle) and a handful of bluegill.

The bluegill part surprised me. Last weekend, folks all over were reporting great bluegill fishing. Fish had moved to beds and were biting well. Not any longer. At least not in the monstrous strip lake we fished (near Middle Grove). This lake was so big we never got to the end of it. And if Chef didn’t have to work, we might still be there.

But back to the bluegill. We didn’t see any on beds. We caught maybe five. And we didn’t care. Not when you can catch a steady stream of 12- to 12.5-inch slab crappie. So that’s what we did. We drifted along and picked off crappie after crappie from along weed edges. Stained water was better for us than the clear water. And we fished only jigs or jigs tipped with Berkley Gulp minnows.

These were gorgeous fish. Even so, Woodcock said, “Today was slow. And we never got into the 15-inchers I thought we’d see.”

Slow? No 15-inchers? We need to go back. Just to ensure we can, both Chef and I are planning to join Farmington’s Lodge No 1571 Loyal Order of Moose. Woodcock is a honcho with the Moose (which means he gets to work a lot) and he says it’s a great organization.

I’m always willing to make a charitable donation to a group that serves cold beer if it also means there might be more crappie in the future.

As for Chef, he conveniently skated out of town before the fish cleaning started.

And the fish I cleaned? Full of eggs, except for the handful of coal-black males I saw. The spawn is still on. Get out and fill a bucket.

 

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